One of the popular subjects at rep conferences is sales management. Discussions are often focused on what managers are tracking - activities or results?

Many of the sales consultants/speakers say that tracking activities is more important than tracking results. Results are in the past and there is nothing you can do about them now, but current activities will lead to results and this is where the focus should be.

We feel tracking both activities and results can be useful for companies.

Tracking and analyzing results allows you to learn from past efforts and tweak the sales process or procedures. Tracking and analyzing activities and communicating this information to key partners - manufacturers represented, sales managers, other members of a sales team - helps everyone stay on track and focus on the ultimate goals - satisfied, loyal customers and increased sales.

MRSWARE allows you to track both results and current activities.

Tracking Results

The easiest method of tracking results is with Data Analysis, where you can really dig down into your data to search for and find the information you want in the View that makes the most sense to you. Sort by customer, by manufacturer, by product, by sales rep, by business address, or by month. You can choose to see a week, month, quarter, year or compare current month, quarter or year to last year, last year same month or last year same quarter. Once the information has been filtered you can export it to Excel to visually share details with charts or graphs.

MRSWARE also provides a variety of reports tracking agency sales and commissions, as well as individual sales rep sales and commissions.

Both types of reports provide results you can use to change your sales focus or analyze profitability.

Activity Tracking

There are a number of different ways to track activities in the system. In MRSWARE Journals contain details of sales calls, sales training, service issues, support calls, trade shows or other events. However, sales activity information can also be found in the calendar, tasks, projects, opportunities, campaigns, and e-mails.

Building and sharing a Relationship Database is part of what makes a CRM system successful. Storing this information in a central location with easy access for all team members is priceless.

MRSWARE has a variety of different reports as well as Data Analysis to track activities. There are reports and analysis cubes designed specifically for outside sales or for management.

These reports can be edited and shared with key partners, communicating your efforts on their behalf. You can also use the information to alter the sales process, coach and educate individuals, or simply keep everyone up-to-date on all issues and focused on your goals.

So, activities or results, which is more important to you? Activities need to be monitored and measured along with results. Activities lead to results which may change how the activities are performed going forward which will hopefully lead to better results. And on it goes...